A sensitive, loving variation on a perennial picture-book theme.
A timorous fledgling needs some gentle persuasion when it’s time to leave the nest.
“You’ve outgrown this woven home,” says a mother bird. “It’s time to fly!” But the sky is so big, the nest so safe and cozy…even a quick flutter to a nearby branch seems too much. “Don’t you want to see the meadow? / Taste new bugs beside the creek?” “Nest is best. / Maybe next week.” Capturing both the lyrical quality of Lyon’s rhymed colloquy and a sense of how scary the wide world looks to the little bird, Coleman offers spare, delicately detailed views of an adult robin and her mottled offspring on separate leafy twigs suspended against a seemingly boundless sky or, sometimes, a broad expanse of white space. Instead of resorting to force, the mother wisely allows the little bird to persuade themselves (“My sister and my brother flew. / I guess if they can, I can too!”) and take the leap: “I’m on my way // to everywhere!” Similar in message if very different in tone to Drew Sheneman’s more theatrical Nope! (2016), this kinder, gentler alternative reassures both prospective grads and younger children heading off to preschool or day care that they are ready to take wing. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A sensitive, loving variation on a perennial picture-book theme. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-7410-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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